FYI Bulletin is a news service covering science policy developments in Washington, DC, with a focus on the physical sciences.

JOHN H. GIBBONS CONFIRMED BY SENATE: By voice vote yesterdayafternoon, the U.S. Senate confirmed Gibbons to be Director of theOffice of Science and Technology Policy. He will also be PresidentClinton's science and technology adviser. One of Gibbons' firstduties will be staffing his office, and it is unknown how Clinton'sgoal of reducing White House staff will affect the OSTP structure. (For further information on the Gibbons' nomination, see FYIs #5,12.)

On December 15, Rep. George Brown (D-California), chairman of theHouse Science Committee, sent a letter to DOE Secretary AdmiralJames Watkins, requesting detailed information on the status of theSuperconducting Super Collider. Watkins responded in a letterdated January 14, just 7 days before he was replaced as EnergySecretary by Hazel O'Leary. The 27-page letter, while mostlyrestating Bush Administration positions, serves as a good summationof the project's current status and will probably be used in

The U.S. Senate approved yesterday the nomination of Hazel R.O'Leary as the new Secretary of Energy. This vote came just twodays after O'Leary appeared before the Senate Energy and NaturalResources Committee.

O'Leary, 55, has been executive vice president for corporateaffairs at the Minnesota-based Northern States Power Company. During the Carter Administration she worked in a senior position atthe Federal Energy Administration.

Members have been named to the subcommittees of the HouseAppropriations Committee for the 103rd Congress. Of major interestto scientists and science educators is the Subcommittee onVeterans' Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, and IndependentAgencies, which has jurisdiction over funding for the NationalScience Foundation and NASA. On the other side of Capitol Hill,the Senate has determined the membership of its major committees,but it has not yet announced final subcommittee assignments.

Following new House rules for the 103rd Congress designed to reducethe proliferation of subcommittees, the House Science, Space andTechnology Committee has been reorganized. Its six subcommitteeshave been reduced to five. It retains unchanged its subcommitteeson Science, Space, Energy, and Investigations and Oversight. TheEnvironment subcommittee was eliminated, and most of itsjurisdiction taken over by the Technology and Competitivenesssubcommittee, now renamed the Subcommittee on Technology,Environment, and Aviation.

"...I have had the opportunity to work on a wide range of issues asthe Assistant to President Bush for Science and Technology, butnone has been more important to me than those issues involving thehealth of this nation's research-intensive universities." - D. Allan Bromley

On December 24, President-elect Clinton nominated John H. "Jack"Gibbons to be Assistant to the President for Science andTechnology, and Director of the White House Office of Science andTechnology Policy (OSTP). Gibbons has served as Director of theOffice of Technology Assessment (OTA), a bipartisan research arm ofthe US Congress, for over a decade.

On January 6, the Department of Energy and the Russian FederationMinistry of Atomic Energy signed an agreement to collaborate on theSuperconducting Super Collider. According to Secretary of EnergyAdmiral James Watkins, the Russians will help with the "design,engineering and production of two of the project's boosteraccelerators."

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